Hello everybody, My name is Avi Benmayor and I am a rising junior at Brookline High. I have two siblings: a 22 year old sister and a twin brother. I play soccer for my high school and a club team called GPS. I love to cook and read, but I also like to play xbox and try new things. I have a passion for science and thats why I am doing this camp. I hope that this camp will help me pick if I like Biology and guide me towards picking a major for college.
My Project
Avi Benmayor BLI Research Project 08.05.16 Bacteria That Can Cure Depression Depression is a serious mental illness that claims hundreds of lives on a daily basis. Specifically in the United States, depression affects twenty one percent of women, and eleven percent of men over the course of their lifetimes. Despite its serious nature and high rates, depression doesn’t get the careful attention it needs. Insead, infections such as zika and ebola are getting much more media attention. Moreover, due to the complexity there is still a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding depression. Although the current treatment methods fall short, medication and therapy are accepted as the two most commonly used treatment methods. That being said, neither of the current best treatments are guaranteed to work. For instance, antidepressants, fail to work for a third of the people using them, “Drug therapies that work on this imbalance lift depression completely in a third of those who take them and partially in another third. For a third of people, antidepressants don't work at all, and many who do get positive results stop taking them because the side effects are worse than the depression symptoms they are supposed to be treating.” (Elliott & Tyrrell). The two most commonly used treatments have different results on different patients depending on their biological and environmental factors. Though depression isn’t the same for everyone, it has relatively similar effects on people. Therefore, it’s dumbfounding that neither have great success with the wide array of people that have depression. Everyone with depression experiences the effects of a chemical imbalance in their bodies, which provides hope that there can be a cure that is able to help a larger segment of the people with depression. The key to find a treatment that works for majority of the people requires a true understanding of the factors contributing to depression. Depression isn’t simply the feeling of sadness, nor is it someone that is unusually mad. Depression is a constant black shadow that surrounds its victims, blocking the happiness they want to feel. It is something that continuously obstructs happy thoughts and behaviors in one’s brain. Scientifically speaking, depression is a chemical imbalance. It is a lack of production of necessary neurotransmitters in the brain - such as serotonin or dopamine. Serotonin regulates sleep, appetite, and mood. Thus, the lack or excess of serotonin in one’s brain could lead to sleep deprivation, which in turn, could lead to depression. The worst part of depression might be, that it can be caused by a variety of different factors: a major event in someone’s life, the loss of a loved one, fatigue, loneliness, genetic vulnerability, or stress. All of these reasons make depression incredibly hard to prevent and treat due to the lack of an effective cure. Based on my findings, I believe that the best approach to an effective cure involves the use of bacteria. With the use of a new technology, CRISPR, we can use bacterias within people to cure depression. Bacteria, currently, help us in many ways, such as breaking down glucose, repairing the walls of our stomachs, and they help rebuild the blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier (BBB) protects the brain from any threats that reside in the blood and blocks out any potentially harmful things that are in one’s blood. Therefore, keeping the BBBs’ walls protected is essential to our well being. Without the aid of bacteria, our blood brain barrier walls would be significantly weaker and thus we wouldn’t be able to live as long as we can. Specifically there are two bacteria that help repair the walls of the BBB - clostridium tyrobutyricum and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Using those two naturally occurring bacterias, we have a way to transport chemicals right into the brain. With CRISPR, we can genetically modify those two bacteria in order to produce the chemicals, tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase. With the bacteria creating tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase, they can combine in order to create serotonin right inside the brain. Once serotonin is made, it acts in the manner it should, which in turn would make the patient’s serotonin levels normal. Although this idea requires a careful research and many tweaks, it has a potential to become a revolutionary idea. A bacteria within the body that could monitor the serotonin level and create the necessary chemicals in order to produce the correct amount of serotonin, would act as an internal doctor.The current treatment methods doesn’t contain any gene that allows our body to monitor its own the serotonin level. Additionally, there is a lack of information about serotonin itself because at the moment, there is an assumption that, all it requires to make serotonin is having the two chemicals be near one another. If there is a certain chemical required to bind the tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase, then the gene for such a chemical must also be inserted into the bacteria. However, in order to achieve such a breakthrough, there needs to be a certain amount of time for trial and error because the results could evolve us a species. In conclusion, although this idea would take years to develop, it offers an alternative treatment method to depression. Although it’s reliability requires testing, if effective it may serve as a genetic solution for depression. Henceforth, if such bacteria exists to cure depression, this only is the stepping stone of a doorway to endless medicinal opportunities.
My name is Avi Benmayor and I am a rising junior at Brookline High. I have two siblings: a 22 year old sister and a twin brother. I play soccer for my high school and a club team called GPS. I love to cook and read, but I also like to play xbox and try new things. I have a passion for science and thats why I am doing this camp. I hope that this camp will help me pick if I like Biology and guide me towards picking a major for college.
My Project
Avi Benmayor
BLI Research Project
08.05.16
Bacteria That Can Cure Depression
Depression is a serious mental illness that claims hundreds of lives on a daily basis. Specifically in the United States, depression affects twenty one percent of women, and eleven percent of men over the course of their lifetimes. Despite its serious nature and high rates, depression doesn’t get the careful attention it needs. Insead, infections such as zika and ebola are getting much more media attention. Moreover, due to the complexity there is still a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding depression. Although the current treatment methods fall short, medication and therapy are accepted as the two most commonly used treatment methods. That being said, neither of the current best treatments are guaranteed to work. For instance, antidepressants, fail to work for a third of the people using them, “Drug therapies that work on this imbalance lift depression completely in a third of those who take them and partially in another third. For a third of people, antidepressants don't work at all, and many who do get positive results stop taking them because the side effects are worse than the depression symptoms they are supposed to be treating.” (Elliott & Tyrrell). The two most commonly used treatments have different results on different patients depending on their biological and environmental factors. Though depression isn’t the same for everyone, it has relatively similar effects on people. Therefore, it’s dumbfounding that neither have great success with the wide array of people that have depression. Everyone with depression experiences the effects of a chemical imbalance in their bodies, which provides hope that there can be a cure that is able to help a larger segment of the people with depression.
The key to find a treatment that works for majority of the people requires a true understanding of the factors contributing to depression. Depression isn’t simply the feeling of sadness, nor is it someone that is unusually mad. Depression is a constant black shadow that surrounds its victims, blocking the happiness they want to feel. It is something that continuously obstructs happy thoughts and behaviors in one’s brain. Scientifically speaking, depression is a chemical imbalance. It is a lack of production of necessary neurotransmitters in the brain - such as serotonin or dopamine. Serotonin regulates sleep, appetite, and mood. Thus, the lack or excess of serotonin in one’s brain could lead to sleep deprivation, which in turn, could lead to depression. The worst part of depression might be, that it can be caused by a variety of different factors: a major event in someone’s life, the loss of a loved one, fatigue, loneliness, genetic vulnerability, or stress. All of these reasons make depression incredibly hard to prevent and treat due to the lack of an effective cure.
Based on my findings, I believe that the best approach to an effective cure involves the use of bacteria. With the use of a new technology, CRISPR, we can use bacterias within people to cure depression. Bacteria, currently, help us in many ways, such as breaking down glucose, repairing the walls of our stomachs, and they help rebuild the blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier (BBB) protects the brain from any threats that reside in the blood and blocks out any potentially harmful things that are in one’s blood. Therefore, keeping the BBBs’ walls protected is essential to our well being. Without the aid of bacteria, our blood brain barrier walls would be significantly weaker and thus we wouldn’t be able to live as long as we can. Specifically there are two bacteria that help repair the walls of the BBB - clostridium tyrobutyricum and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Using those two naturally occurring bacterias, we have a way to transport chemicals right into the brain. With CRISPR, we can genetically modify those two bacteria in order to produce the chemicals, tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase. With the bacteria creating tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase, they can combine in order to create serotonin right inside the brain. Once serotonin is made, it acts in the manner it should, which in turn would make the patient’s serotonin levels normal.
Although this idea requires a careful research and many tweaks, it has a potential to become a revolutionary idea. A bacteria within the body that could monitor the serotonin level and create the necessary chemicals in order to produce the correct amount of serotonin, would act as an internal doctor.The current treatment methods doesn’t contain any gene that allows our body to monitor its own the serotonin level. Additionally, there is a lack of information about serotonin itself because at the moment, there is an assumption that, all it requires to make serotonin is having the two chemicals be near one another. If there is a certain chemical required to bind the tryptophan and tryptophan hydroxylase, then the gene for such a chemical must also be inserted into the bacteria. However, in order to achieve such a breakthrough, there needs to be a certain amount of time for trial and error because the results could evolve us a species.
In conclusion, although this idea would take years to develop, it offers an alternative treatment method to depression. Although it’s reliability requires testing, if effective it may serve as a genetic solution for depression. Henceforth, if such bacteria exists to cure depression, this only is the stepping stone of a doorway to endless medicinal opportunities.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1c2wp5hdthYcGrU4z1qFMQjGOmKHdEWb-koJJSPm2508/edit?usp=sharing